TORRINGTON >> The wheels of the Torrington mayoral race wagon started turning in May. That’s the month when then mayor Ryan J. Bingham—who had held the city’s top job since 2005—announced he would not be seeking reelection.

The obvious questions sprung up: Who would replace the mayor who at only 22 ascended to the city’s highest municipal office? Who would the Republican Party choose to inherit Bingham’s seat? Who would Democrats decided was fit to regain the office lost eight years ago? And would anyone else throw their hat in the ring?

As voters willing to exercise their democratic right mark their calendars for Election Day, Nov. 5, and the wagon wheels begin to slow down, three of the four mayoral candidates sat down with the Register Citizen Editorial Board to discuss how they would take charge of the city’s highest office.

Carbone, Craig and Williams spoke to the board during separate meetings that consisted of interviews with editors. Romano was unavailable for an editorial meeting but spoke during a separate interview.

Carbone said her experience serving in elected office and close work in city politics are the reason she ran for mayor. Carbone, who is a Torrington native and a probate paralegal at Cramer and Anderson in Litchfield, has served in elected public office for 10 years.

“I intend to focus on economic development,” Carbone said. “Our grand list has been stagnant for a very long time, which is indicative of the tough economic times that we have gone through.”

The city is poised to see a lot existing business grow, Carbone said, and she plans to make the city more attractive to outside businesses by first helping develop businesses that are already here.

As someone who relishes in not being a politician, Craig’s platform involves using his experience as a business owner. Craig works as a territory manager for Star Supply of New Haven and has lived in Torrington for 24 years.

“The reason why I am running is because I want to see the city a better place,” Craig said. “I live here, my best friends live here and I realize that this place has a lot of potential and I want to be a part of that.”

Craig said he was inspired to see Torrington grow into a prosperous city after Great Barrington, Mass. In order to begin realizing his plan, his first action as mayor would be meeting with directors and figureheads for the city’s department to see what each department is working on.

Friends served as the greatest motivators for Williams, who currently serves a co-chairman of the Arts and Culture Commission of Torrington and owns his own entertainment business. He’s lived in Torrington for 20 years. He said whether or not he is successful in winning the seat, he feels the situation is a win-win for him.

“If I was able to do this and shed a light on some of the issues that people had discussed to me that were important to them, it would be a good situation to do this,” Williams said.

Williams said he would focus on neighborhood revitalization and attempt to secure grants to help homeowners enhance their homes.

“Hopefully the consequences of that would be raising property values, not only for that individual homeowner but for the neighborhoods,” Williams said.

Romano said he wants to bring about change and be the voice for the city.

“(I want to) be the voice of the common man so everybody has a voice in response to public works,” Romano said. He said he would focus on making the government more transparent.

Bringing in business

All four candidates said attracting businesses to help bring jobs is a key portion of their platform. In Torrington, where abandoned and decaying industrial buildings dot its urban landscape as physical reminders of failure, residents are eager to see a leader return a sense of prosperity lost when those industries fell.

The city’s efforts for economic development took a hit in October after Rose Ponte announced she was resigning as the city’s economic development director to take a similar position in Farmington. Replacing her won’t be easy, as most of the candidates praised the work she completed for the city.

Romano said creating more jobs for residents would be one of his first priorities. He said doing so would involve looking at the current structure of the city and seeing what type of incentives they can offer new businesses.

Carbone said that a lack of available space for new businesses can hinder large-scale growth. She also notes the imposing, rotting buildings.

“It brings the value of the neighborhood down,” Carbone said. “It brings the value of the community down and I think it impacts our quality of life. It’s depressing for me to drive down past the stone container building.”

Opening a line of communication with current businesses is vital to assuring other businesses would be interesting in coming to Torrington, which would help increase the tax base for the city. She also wants to start a relationship with commercial brokers.

“I view them as our economic development associates,” Carbone said. “They are the people that have these listings of commercial space that they are marketing.”

For Craig, attracting more businesses to the city, and specifically the downtown area, starts with brining more foot traffic.

“I guess what it comes down to it is there’s two ways you can look at it: Yeah we can try to attract more people by trying to find out what types of stores are going to attract more people,” Craig said.

While he doesn’t think the city will be able to attract retail stores back to the downtown area, he thinks the city’s blooming artistic community in the downtown area will help bring more people to the area.

“We will get some more restaurants and we will get some specialty stores,” Craig said. He said bringing shops like Trader Joe’s and even bringing down the University of Connecticut’s Torrington campus downtown could improve foot traffic. He said bringing another university like Quinnipiac to hold classes in the downtown area would be beneficial as well.

As a musician, Williams has a special appreciation for the arts. It’s clear they hold a special place in his platform as he looks to develop the burgeoning downtown art movement that he thinks could have beneficial economic ramifications.

“The arts has many indirect applications to the economy that I don’t think people are quite aware of,” Williams said. He said opening up space in the downtown area could create an incentive for business entities to get involved and create a connection with the arts community, which could lead to economic development.

“If I were elected, that within itself would raise the curiosity of entrepreneurs and business people and I think it would be sending a message from Torrington to other communities that we are open for business,” Williams said.

A focus on education

Improving the high school’s graduation rate and fostering a relationship with the Board of Education is important to all four candidates. According to the latest available data from the State Department of Education, 77.4 percent of students in Torrington graduate in four years during the 2010-11 school year, leaving the district in the bottom 13 percent of the state.

After serving in the Board of Education and with three sons who graduated through the Torrington Public Schools System, Carbone has a unique perspective among her peers in this arena.

“Education is important to me and yes, that’s a priority,” Carbone said. “Education in a community is supposed to be designed to serve the community. I don’t think we’re getting enough of the public mandate.

Carbone said that graduation rates pose a tough problem, but she said that a message to parents and students who feel disaffected needs to be sent. This could be done with outreach, she said, and by making parents feel more comfortable talking with administrators and attending board meetings.

“There is nothing worse than a parent who has just fallen into despair, that they really don’t know where to turn or where to get help,” Carbone said.

A mayor does not take an active role serving and making decisions on the board of education, but all four candidates said they would plan to attend the meetings when possible. Carbone said outreach for students and parents could be achieved with the help of the city’s website and with the creation of an outreach center that could be paid for with grant money.

Romano worked as a teacher at Torrington High School and was fired before suing the school for wrongful termination. That suit was later thrown out by a judge on a technicality. During his time as a teacher, he said he saw a lack of policy and procedure and a lack of structure, which he thinks he could help restore if elected.

More direct, one-on-one interactions with students during their 8th through 10th grade years are needed, Williams said, as those are critical grades in helping discover what the students are curious about. It would also be key in helping students reach their potential and plan their post-high school careers, Williams said.

“A lot of times what happens is students are treated proactively; they let situations happen first and then try to remedy the situation instead of being proactive and getting kids before they fall off the cliff,” Williams said.

Williams said he would like the mayor’s office to be more accessible to students, proposing an open door policy for students to discuss issues they would like to see improved. This would also allow the possibility for an open dialect with parents, he said.

Being actively involved in schools and even taking a physical walk-through the high school is one of Craig’s plans for helping improve the educational system. He too would like to focus on the 8th through 10th grade students to make sure they’re needs are being addressed. However, he doesn’t necessarily think all graduating students need to be college-bound.

“I think that not every child is set to go to college and our high school is based on that premise that everybody is going to college and it’s not true,” Craig said.

As mayor, Craig would be actively involved with the technical school as well, as he feels that students should be prepared for the workforce that will be available. He feels more opportunities for industrial positions will become available as industries from China or Mexico return to the United States, he said.

Craig said he would also focus on approaching state and federal elected representatives to find funding opportunities for local school.

Helping the city find ways to make a profit is an area Craig would like to improve on if elected. He said he would like to market Torrington even more and improve the city’s website for this purpose too. He’s in favor of regionalization of certain services, like building equipment, to help save the city money. He said he would also consider installing solar panels in the city.

“Let’s generate some electricity and make some money for the city,” Craig said.

Carbone said that lobbying the state for money—which Bingham took an active role in while in office—is a critical piece of the mayor’s office at the state level.

“It’s important to remind them on a daily basis that we’re here and that we have great needs,” Carbone said.

Different visions

Running the town like a community is William’s plan, adding that common sense goes a long way to run an effective government. He wants to focus on reshaping Torrington’s image and making Torringtonians proud of their city. He said having an environment where people feel like they belong is important for people to build a sense of community.

“Let’s let Torrington be that proverbial great city on that shinning hill. Let’s be a model,” Williams said.

Craig asked himself a simple question after some pondering and visiting Great Barrington: “Why can’t this be Torrington?” He thinks it’s time for his party to make a change in the city and wants to be the person to spearhead this effort.

For her part, Carbone said she has enjoyed her time as city councilwoman and is most proud of the work she did with the Mayor’s Committee on Youth. “Great things are happening,” Carbone said about her hometown. She said she is also proud of the city’s reputation, which includes a low crime rate.

Romano said he is the most qualified candidate, with experience he said can help complete and implement changes.

While all four have a distinct and personal reason to want to lead Torrington, when the wagon’s wheels stop turning on Nov. 5, only one candidate will step down a victor. All four believe they can lead the city with separate visions for leadership, economic development and an improved educational system.

“This is a calling,” Williams said. “To be a leader is something that you’re not given.”